D-Resonate Sonata of the Phantasm Pre-Alpha test and Dev Thread

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Important Update:

A Slight Change in Direction


So after Chat the other day, I've been thinking about this game's length. And a thought occurred to me. An hour and a half is pretty bad for a $10 game. Even though it will come with a 20+ track OST. And of course for the sake of quality. I refuse to release the game at all unless I can get it running smooth and the OST sounding at least decent. Which thankfully, I have a guy that can help me with that. A relative of mine actually. Yes the interconnected branching pathways with items being only obtainable through exploration was meant to add some replay value, as well as encourage and reward the player for exploring. But that might not be enough.

As for the game's length. The post game events are part of my attempt to increase the game's time.

Return to Somnus adds another hour.

And Nightmare Castle due to it's planned difficulty, could add anywhere from another hour to 3+ hours depending on player skill. though in hindsight, this can be said for the whole game really.

I've had these planned up for months now (in the case of RtS, over a year). But was hesitant to talk about them mainly because. I wasn't sure if I was going to go the extra mile with these. While RtS is simply a retread through the main game's areas with the layout's of each area changed around bit and more story (not talking about the plot out in the open). And the same bosses for each area minus the final boss "Phantasm Queen" whom is replaced with a new one boss I've actually posted a few pics of her here. Making it fairly time friendly to make. Nightmare castle is almost a small game in of itself. Despite having only 9 areas, and a handful of bosses. Due to requiring entirely new assets, different from the main game.

But after that chat I'm thinking I should go the extra mile, at least with RtS. To add more time to the game bring it up to 2 and a half hours average time. Nightmare Castle will still happen (I REALLY want to make this for "reasons" MUHUHAHAHA~! X3). But may not be in the final build. More then likely it'll come in a future update (not dlc since it's not an after thought).

About Side Quests:
So that's all fine and good but I don't feel it's enough. So I'm going to make a promise I tried to avoid and stand by it. There will be side quests. I won't say how many but there will be more to do in the main story outside of just exploring areas, picking up and drinking strange potions you found on the ground, and beating up Phantasms because reasons. NPCs are planned to be there and will mainly be used to assist the player (tips) and add some story to the game's world/develop Sarina's character. Giving the player more reasons to actually talk to them doesn't seem like a bad idea. And it'll expose them to and give them more reason to learn enemy patterns and routes. Extending the games time some more. to maybe at least over 3 hours.

The 4 Optional bosses "The Witches of the Four Seasons" will stay. They are each hidden in 4 of the 8 areas of the main game's castle (I have that planned out but I'm not telling that out in the open). And can be fought at any given time after entering the Hub area "Hall of Rem" for the first time. You just have to find the hidden warp points for them in each of the 4 stages. There is a Phantasm NPC named "Vivian" who does tell you a story about them and how they came to an end as you progress through the game. Eventually telling you where to find them when the final 2 areas of the game open up. Beating each of them will earn you a new spell to use (this game's bosses are all structured very much like Megaman's). 4 in total and each very useful, and to clarify what I mean by spells. Spells in DRSotP = Special Weapons in MM. If you chose to fight them early, you will have a very difficult time beating them due to lacking there weaknesses. But you'll have the most time to play with 4 of the best spells in the game. If I fail to balance these right it could break the game but we'll cross that bridge when we'll get to it. For the sake of detail and dodging a possible bug I'll add some alternate dialog for her that triggers in the event you beat them early. If you decide to fight them later in the game. You'll have a much easier time with them due to having their weaknesses. Making it easy to earn some of the best spells in the game. At the cost of not being able to use them as much during the main story. Luckily there's post game to play with them in. There will be a catch to this however. You only have until the Final Boss to fight them and get their spells. You will lose your chance once you beat the final boss due to what happens next in the story as a direct result of that battle.


Damn it Kyanbu, why so many bosses!? The 12 bosses (16 counting the witches) are why this game's main story was originally estimated to be around an hour and a half in length. Also MM games are technically around the same length with even more bosses. There's really no harm in it as the bosses are probably going to be one of this games strong points since I've put more thought into them then I have the actual level design. For better or worse. While this is a metroidvania with more focus on platforming and exploration. This game is more inspired by MM. And pays greater homage to it in terms of some of it's design choices I've made.

And that's the end of this info dump. I'll post a graph showing this game's planned difficulty curve in the morning. It's past mid night where I am now. There's also that other thing I forgot to post here. I'll try to get that up tomorrow.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Update:

A few days early but I am technically feeling much better now. Unfortunately RL matters and studying for my driver's test ate up most of my time. So much for getting a lot done. But I did end up making progress as far as planning out the game's story. And I have 1 NPC sketched up so far...Progress! XD

Alright, i'm taking the test tomorrow. After I pass it...again hopefully this time I can prep myself for the road test and accomplish something I should have accomplished the year after I graduated from High School. Get a license...man I really wish I had focused more on just getting this out of the way sooner. It's kind of embarrassing that it's taken me this long. squint emoticon Then finding a main job that pays decently. Working as a freelance artists was only really meant for spend change, not as a main means of income. Can't really afford anything important through that (unless I got some big contract but that's very unlikely).

As for the whole wanting to socialize more promise. I decided it's best to start doing that more now. I can't really go out much but there are plenty more places on the net that I could go and chat. Including a few forums I already go to. As for the game project, I should have some screen shots of waking forest ready this week.


WIP of the first of a number of NPCs. Not a lot though.

An NPC for "D-Resonate, Sonata of the Phantasm"
Name: Vivi
Faction/Guild: Vandalia Syndicate
Job: Grunt
Will be cleaned up soon.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Updates: An item concept and two more NPC concepts.

Potions Concept design 1


NPC Generic Vandalia Syndicate Member Male



NPC Generic Vandalia Syndicate Member Female


Both will be cleaned up and made into full body pics. Designs are not final yet.

[phil_]

Stubble on a face that's already covered in fur is the best kind of nonsense. Are those potions going to drop off enemies like hearts and secret wall chicken, or are they a shops-only type of thing? Because they're awfully small for platformer pick-ups, with the exception of the supreme hookah potion.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Not really finalized designs, and they'll be larger in size in game when finalized and around the same height. Items are obtained through finding them in areas or receiving them from NPCs via side quests/missions. Currently I don't really plan on making a shop Though I do have a design idea for a merchant in the event that I change my mind for some reason.

Mainly because the shops in Metriodvania games usually tend to be completely irrelevant when you can find the same items from enemy drops, ect.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Update:

Still working on the environment sprites but here's a Work in Progress of the Waking Forest Area 1 of 11 for the middle route.



The full size version can be seen below.
http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o...psn7b21kmu.png

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Update:

Ok I finished scaling down the graphics.

Feast your eyes on these amazing breath taking HD graphics!



Totally puts those AAA games to shame.

[phil_]

Will it run on my TI-83? It's a TI-83 Plus, if that makes a difference.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Well of Course, the TI-83 is the most advance Calculator in the world with truer then life next gen graphics.

This game will run great on it.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Update:
Due to problems at home. I won't be able to work on much of anything till sometime next week. On the other hand I no longer care about relationships anymore. Because I sure do not want to go through a war every night with out of control children in my 30s/40s. Never having children because I already got my experience in parenthood raising one up till this point (long story).